In the first chapter of Genesis, we read that God made man—the true identity of you and me—in His image and likeness. But that’s not all. He also gave us dominion over all the earth. While that may be easy to claim in the comfort of an easy chair, it’s a whole different story when facing what appears to be a crisis. What is one to do, for example, when confronted with threats of a raging inferno, powerful flood, serious accident, crippling health challenge, or any other seeming threat?
The Bible is filled with such accounts. But it is also filled with remarkable examples of God’s deliverance, as when David sang, “When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; . . . in my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. . . . He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; he delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me” (II Samuel 22:5, 7, 17, 18).
A perusal of biblical accounts leads to a striking revelation: Deliverance from a crisis never begins with a physical action or reaction, but with a mental, prayerful response. The victor is impelled to trustingly turn to God to begin to witness the coincidence of God’s divine influence with the human need. The practical benefit of such a response cannot be overstated. It is summed up this way in the Bible: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7).
